Nicholas P.O.V.

The class had just ended and the teacher, Mr. Porter was handing out tests that he graded from days ago. After Mr. Porter was done speaking to a few students, he went over to me and handed me my test. 

“You did much better in this test than the last one, Mr. Page. But please remember to show your work so I can give you full credit.”

“Y-yes sir. Thank you, Mr. Porter.”

After getting my test, I left the classroom. As I was walking down the hallway, someone elbowed on my side. I was hit so hard that all the air was knocked out of me and I fell to the ground. 

“Ow! P-please excuse me—“

I looked up at the one person I did not want to see—Johnny. My face instantly turned pale as the bully grinned like a villain.  

“O-oh…it’s you Johnny…”

“What’s up you big bag of fat!”

Johnny cackled. 

“Where have you been all this time?”

I raised an eyebrow, confused by the question Johnny asked me. 

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I  haven’t seen you in a few days. It’s almost like you’ve been avoiding me.”

I shook his head frantically. 

“N-no! That’s not it! I-I’ve just been very busy! Doing stuff for my family and-“

Johnny lowered himself so that he would be face-to-face with me. His fierce eyes made me quiver. 

“Don’t lie, I know you have been at the botanical garden with that black-haired woman.“

“Y-you…saw me?”

Johnny snarled.

“Yeah, so that’s where you’ve been hiding. I can’t believe you, running away and making pathetic excuses just so you don’t have to hang out with us. Come on man, I thought we were friends.”

“I-I just wanted some space…”

“You know what? I understand.”

Johnny stood up.

“Don’t worry about it, I get that you wanted some time to yourself. I mean, even I have breaks in my days just to be alone with my thoughts.”

Johnny then held out his hand, encouraging me to grab it. While still very nervous I grabbed Johnny’s hand and he helped me to my feet. 

“So what? Do you like planting and stuff?”

“M-my grandma and I used to do a lot of gardening before she passed. We even-“

“Hey, I didn’t ask for a whole damn story, I don’t care.”

I closed my mouth and held my head down.

“Anyway, I wanna see it! Show me what you and that woman did in the garden!”

“U-um…students aren’t really allowed to go inside unless it’s for class or you are part of a club that’s involved with the garden.”

“Hm, that’s strange. Yet, that woman lets you in when you for sure are not part of any club. That doesn’t seem fair to me.”

“Well-“

Johnny puts his arm around me, tightening the strength around my neck.

“Let me rephrase—let me in the garden, or else I’m gonna beat the crap out of you…”

“Ok! OK! I’ll take you to the garden…”

Johnny and his pals (he called them from his phone) forced me to unlock the doors to the botanical garden. Once they were opened they pushed me inside.  

“Miss Esther isn’t here.”

“You know, that Miss Esther is actually pretty hot! Don’t you guys agree?”

One of Johnny’s pals said in a disgusting way. While two of the other guys nodded in agreement, Johnny simply shrugged in an uncaring fashion. 

“Meh, she’s not my type.”

“What are you planning to do here Johnny?” I asked Johnny cautiously. “If you damage anything Ms. Esther will not let it go-“

Johnny grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, easily lifting my feet off the ground.  

“Hold on, since when did you get the balls to talk to me like that?”

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—“

“There’s the scared fatty I know!”

Johnny then threw me back to the ground and reached into his pocket. 

“Shut up and take this.”

He threw the object towards me, which I managed to catch. When I opened my hands I gasped in shock to realize that Johnny had given me a lighter.

“W-why are you giving me a lighter?”

Johnny answered me with the calmest expression I have ever seen. 

“I want you to start burning some plants.”

“WHAT?!”

I stand up quickly and back away from Johnny and the other boys. I hold the lighter close to my chest. 

“I don’t want to do that! You want to ruin the garden!?”

“Exactly, I want you to burn everything to ash.”

“Why do you want me to do that!?”

“It’d be funny, I want to see that woman’s face as watches all her precious twigs and vines get burned. She’ll be so upset and will blame you for it since you’re the only student who comes here!”

“N…no…”

There was silence in the garden. Johnny pretends to clean out his ears and then cups one of them to try and listen closer.

“Hold on, I must be deaf because I’m pretty sure I heard you say something you weren’t supposed to.”

“I’m not gonna burn these plants! Miss Esther has been working really hard to keep all the flowers as healthy as possible! And I’ve helped her too!”

Before any other words could come out of my mouth, Johnny delivered a devastating punch straight to my face. I flew backward and crashed into a table of plants behind me. The dirt and vines fell all over—dirtying my uniform. 

“I don’t give a damn how hard you worked on it! I told you to do something, you fat pig, so do it!”

I put my fingers to my nose and felt something wet. Looking at my hands, I see some blood. Johnny’s punch had probably broken my nose. 

I was scared. Unbelievably scared. But I was not going to let Johnny destroy the garden. 

“I…don’t care if you beat me up, I’m not burning these plants!”

Johnny growled in irritation and kicked me right in the stomach. I gasped aloud and fell over on my face. 

“Fine, once I turn you into bacon I’ll burn the plants myself. Then leave you here to take the blame.”

“D-don’t! Please! Just leave this place alone! You have no reason to do this-“

“What’s going on here?!”

We all turned to the door to see Ms. Esther. Her face showcased complete shock at the scene before her.

“What are you hooligans trying to do in my garden?! And…Nicholas!? What have they done to you!?”

Johnny sucked his teeth.

 “Damnit…get her!”

Johnny’s friends look at him with confusion.

“What do you mean “get her”?”

“I mean keep her ass here so she doesn’t start running to the principal! Hold her down!”

In fear of increasing Johnny’s anger to dangerous proportions, the boys rush to Ms. Esther. The woman tried to get away, but the three boys were quick enough to grab her and hold her down.  

“What do you think you all are doing?!” Ms. Esther screamed. “I swear you all will be in serious trouble!”

Johnny shouted back, looking completely insane.

“I don’t wanna hear this bitch talk! Gag her or something!”

Completely horrified by how quickly the situation was escalating, I called out to Johnny.

“Johnny, stop! This is going too far! Leave Miss Esther alone!”

“What is with your mouth today!? Shut up!”

Johnny knelt down and punched me in the stomach over and over again. Seeing me get physically assaulted, Ms. Esther cried towards us. 

“Nicholas! What is wrong with you kids!? Leave him alone!”

“What are you gonna do about it?“

“Don’t make me—“

“I don’t understand you…”

I had reached my limit…

“…What do you get from hurting people like this?”

“N…Nicholas?”

Ms. Esther called out my name, but I did not respond as I stood up. The moment I was on my feet, a strange orange light began to surround my entire body. Everyone looked at me with complete shock over their faces. 

“I don’t understand people like you…”

A powerful heat filled the room. Ms. Esther gulped.

“Nicholas…calm down—“

“I’m not letting you ruin this garden…I’m not letting you get away with hurting people ANYMORE!!”

“Is he—“

Out of nowhere a tornado of fire burst from Nicholas' body and consumed the whole garden. All the plants were on fire. Johnny stood completely frozen in shock while his pals were freaking out. 

“What the hell is that!?”

“Is that fire?!”

“RUN!!”

The three boys ran out of the burning botanical garden while Johnny still stood in a complete daze. 

“W-why you—“

He tried to punch me again, but the flames surrounding me hit him first. The fire completely consumed the side of his face and Johnny fell backwards onto the ground, screaming and rolling around in pain. 

Throughout the entire sequence, I felt like I was in a daze. As if everything around me was just a dream.

“What did I just do…?”

When reality suddenly came to me, a powerful sting erupted in my stomach. I clutched my tummy as I felt the urge to throw up.  

“Oh no…I did it again…”

“MY FACE! MY FUCKING FACE!!”

Johnny, whose face was smoking, crawled out of the garden while I fell to my knees.

“Let’s get out here!”

Ms. Esther came up to me and carried me out of the burning botanical garden.

“Come on! We cannot stay here! Let’s go!”

We managed to escape and fell right outside of the burning botanical garden. In front of us, Johnny and his pals bore terrified faces. Johnny, who now only had one-half of his face, looked up at me with indescribable rage.

“Nick! You fat bastard! How the hell did you do that!?”

But I could not answer as I lost consciousness. The last thing I heard was the worried cries of Ms. Esther.

When I woke up and realized he was in the hospital. By the side of my bed was Ms. Esther, who was sleeping in a chair. I also turned to my left to see a window revealing the hospital I was currently in. And right outside was a doctor and my parents who were conversing with him.  

“What…happened to me?”

The words I spoke woke Ms. Esther up and she exclaimed in joy seeing me wide awake.

“Nicholas! You’re okay!”

“Ms. Esther? How long have I been here for?”

“A day and a half. We were getting really worried.”

“I…I’m sorry. What happened to the garden?”

“...it burned down.”

The memory of the flames emitting from my body, the horrific sights of everyone, and the enraged face of the burned Johnny were engraved in my mind. My stomach started to gurgle. 

“Even though I fought back…I ended up burning down the garden anyway…I’m so sorry, Ms. Esther.”

I started to cry, which caused Ms. Esther to quickly come over and hug me. 

“Don’t worry about that. None of that matters to me, I’m just glad you’re okay now.”

“But I ended up burning down school property…I’m probably gonna get expelled…”

Ms. Esther shook her head.

“No, the only ones getting expelled are Johnny and those other troublemakers.”

“R-really? B-but how? Why?”

“I told the board about your relationship with Johnny, how he has been bullying you for over a year. When the teachers saw your beaten-up body yesterday they were inclined to believe it, but even all of that wasn’t enough to get rid of the little monster…until other students started speaking out. When they heard about what happened to you and me, some kids finally came clean to Johnny’s antiques. Ultimately, Johnny was expelled for the fire due to them finding cigarette packs in his pocket and locker.”

“So…Johnny got expelled for the fire…”

“Yes, even though rumors are spreading that you started the fire, the majority of the school board believes it to be the latter.”

“I…I don’t know how to feel about that…I mean, I was the one who really started the fire!”

“You started the fire by accident! You were trying to protect me and yourself. Not to mention Johnny came with the full intention to burn down my garden anyway. So in the end, everything worked out for itself.”

“But what about Johnny’s gang or—“

“I seriously doubt he was part of any gang and even if he was it’s not a problem for you.”

“Not a problem?“

“After Johnny’s expulsion was confirmed, his parents were furious. They came right into the school, yelling and slapping him around. The father even boldly proclaimed they were moving out of town the next day. And that was the last time I saw him…”

“He’s really gone…”

Ms. Esther smiled.

“Yes, he is. It’s finally over. So what are you gonna do now Nicholas?”

I thought for a moment and then looked up at Ms. Esther.

“Can you please call my parents here Miss Esther? I want to tell them everything.”